Boxing-kangaroo show goes on despite PETA protests

The announcer declares over a screeching speaker that the fight is about to begin. The challenger awaits impatiently in the ring, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Then the champ hops through the ropes — dragging his heavy tail behind him.

For the next few minutes, a video shows, Rocky the kangaroo and Kissimmee circus artist Javier Martínez engage in a clumsy dance that looks something like boxing. Clad in red-and-white shorts and wearing boxing gloves, Rocky lunges at his opponent and delivers a one-two combination that sends Martínez flying out of the ring. Marsupial triumphs over man. The crowd roars.

Martínez says his show, which he takes on the road across the country, is just a fun-filled circus act. But PETA disagrees. This is the real Rocky horror show, the animal-rights group says.

"Forcing a kangaroo to wear a costume and harassing it into fighting is not only cruel but illegal in the state of Florida," said Carney Anne Chester, a legal fellow at the group's Washington headquarters. "The law expressly prohibits tormenting animals. It has to stop."

PETA has asked the Florida State Boxing Commission to stop the fights because Rocky isn't a licensed fighter. It also wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which monitor exotic animals in captivity, to revoke Martínez's permits. In addition to Rocky, Martínez owns a baby kangaroo being groomed for the stage. They're both red kangaroos, the largest type.

None of the agencies has found Martínez in violation of the law, however, and Martínez dismisses the criticism as ignorance.

"PETA knows nothing about kangaroos," he said. "What we do on stage is play with the animal. We don't taunt him. He sits on the back legs and moves the front paws back and forth because it is his natural behavior."

Martínez, a native of Argentina, is a fourth-generation circus performer. The son of an acrobat and a juggler, he has been on stage since age 10. He said he left his country in 1990 to perform in Japan for a year as an acrobat with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. After that, he came to the U.S. and continued to perform with circuses.

In the mid-1990s, Martínez, now 52, began working with kangaroos because his body "wouldn't support him as an acrobat anymore." He said he looked for something that would combine his passion for circus performing with his love of animals, and a kangaroo act that he had seen years earlier came to mind.

Working with kangaroos is far different from working with chimps or dolphins, Martínez said.

"They have zero intelligence — zero," he said with a chuckle. "They are more comparable to a deer."

Even so, Rocky's handler has been able to improve the animal's reflexes by holding regular training sessions in which he repeatedly throws a ball for Rocky to catch. This helps Rocky be more agile in the ring. The animal isn't taught to throw punches, though. To simulate boxing, Martínez takes advantage of an instinctive kangaroo behavior in which it moves its smaller forelegs (the "arms") back and forth to play with other kangaroos or to hold an attacker in place.

Sometimes Rocky refuses to move in the ring, and there's not much his handler can do about it.

"When that happens, I run in and out of the ring pretending to be terrified," Martínez said. "People get a good laugh."

When Martínez isn't on the road, he's at his Kissimmee property, a 1.5-acre lot lined with pine trees. It holds a couple of RVs, several trailers packed with props, the kangaroos' 26-foot air-conditioned trailer and an above-ground pool. He lives there with his wife, also from a circus family, who performs with him along with their two adult children.

Despite the criticism, Martínez is continuing his kangaroo act. None of the agencies that regulate his act has found cause to rescind his permits. Joy Hill, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said her agency's role is to make sure the animal is treated properly. An investigator went to one of Rocky's shows earlier this month in response to PETA's complaint and didn't observe anything improper, Hill added.

The USDA made a similar judgment. The agency has been monitoring Martínez and his kangaroos for more than a decade. He has had four, including Rocky and the baby.

"His record is pretty clean," said Dave Sacks, a spokesman with the USDA. "We don't take an ideological stand in this matter. If your state allows it, we are going to make sure that you take proper care of the animal and that the public is safe when you're exhibiting it."

The boxing commission isn't in PETA's corner either. In a statement, a spokeswoman said the agency's legal department has determined that Florida boxing laws and rules apply only to humans.